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Doctrinal Controversies of the Carolingian Renaissance: Gottschalk of Orbais’ Teachings on Predestination*

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Doctrinal Controversies of the Carolingian Renaissance: Gottschalk of Orbais’ Teachings on Predestination* ROCZNIKI FILOZOFICZNE Tom LXV, numer 3 – 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18290/rf.2017.65.3-3 ANDRZEJ P. STEFAŃCZYK * DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES OF THE CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE: GOTTSCHALK OF ORBAIS’ TEACHINGS ON PREDESTINATION* This paper is intended to outline the main areas of controversy in the dispute over predestination in the 9th century, which shook up or electrified the whole world of contemporary Western Christianity and was the most se- rious doctrinal crisis since Christian antiquity. In the first part I will sketch out the consequences of the writings of St. Augustine and the revival of sci- entific life and theological and philosophical reflection, which resulted in the emergence of new solutions and aporias in Christian doctrine—the dispute over the Eucharist and the controversy about trina deitas. In the second part, which constitutes the main body of the article, I will focus on the presenta- tion of four sources of controversies in the dispute over predestination, whose inventor and proponent was Gottschalk of Orbais, namely: (i) the concept of God, (ii) the meaning of grace, nature and free will, (iii) the rela- tion of foreknowledge to predestination, and (iv) the doctrine of redemption, i.e., in particular, the relation of justice to mercy. The article is mainly an attempt at an interpretation of the texts of the epoch, mainly by Gottschalk of Orbais1 and his adversary, Hincmar of Reims.2 I will point out the dif- Dr ANDRZEJ P. STEFAŃCZYK — Katedra Historii Filozofii Starożytnej i Średniowiecznej, Wy- dział Filozofii Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II; adres do korespondencji: Al. Racławickie 14, 20–950 Lublin; e-mail: [email protected] * The paper was prepared under the aegis of research project OPUS: The Philosophical Problem of Determinism: from St. Augustine to Alvin Plantinga. Human Freedom and Theistic Hypothesis, NCN: UMO-2014/2015/B/HS1/00406, headed by Prof. Agnieszka Kijewska, KUL. 1 Gottschalk was born about 803 in Saxony, in the family of a count named Bernus, and died in October 868. He was delivered as an oblate child, together with his inheritance, to the mona- stery of Fulda in Charlemagne’s lifetime. Fulda was an important educational center, especially 54 ANDRZEJ P. STEFAŃCZYK ficulties in discussing the issue and outline what attempts at solving this problem have taken place in the following centuries. I. The phenomenon of the Carolingian Renaissance is usually defined as a restoration of antique cultural patterns, which largely resulted in the resto- ration of education (the work of Alcuin of York, teaching within the frame- work of the septem artes liberales—trivium and quadrivium), and the re- sumption of theological studies (Sacred Scripture) and philosophical investi- gations. In the field of theology and philosophy St. Augustine was an un- questioned authority. But insightful reading of the writings of Augustine and other Fathers of the Church by the ninth-century scholars led to the question- ing of the inherited Augustinian synthesis at several points and to attempts to interpret it. The new interpretations of the Augustinian synthesis and the research carried out on it, or straightforward attempts to go beyond it, have, however, resulted in controversies. Hence, directly or indirectly, it was Au- gustine’s texts that were the source of the disputes of that era. The three after 803, when Rabanus Maurus (784–856), Alcuin’s pupil, became the head of its school. In Fulda Gottschalk studied Latin, the Bible, the fathers, and the basics of the classical literature. Before 840, deserting his monastery, he went to Italy, and preached there his doctrine of double predestination; Gottschalk of Orbais taught that God’s predestination is twofold, that is, before the creation the Creator predestined some men to salvation and others to hell. Reaction of his former abbot Rabanus Maurus and his metropolitan Hincmar of Reims started the 9th century predestination controversy, which was made even more acute by the intervention of John Scot Eriugena. Though many defended Gottschalk’s thoroughly Augustinian theology (among others, Lupus of Ferrières, Ratramnus of Corbie, Prudentius of Troyes and Florus of Lyons), Gottschalk was imprisoned at the monastery of Hautvilliers where he later died having several times refused to renounce his views. The theological works of Gottschalk in Latin are the following: Confessio brevior, Confessio prolixior, De trina deitate, De praedestinatione. Poetry of Gottschalk: Ut quid iubes, Ad Ratramnum, Christe mearum lux tenebrarum, Spes mea Christe, O Deus miseri misere- re servi and many others. See Gottschalk & A Medieval Predestination Controversy, ed. and trans. Victor Genke and Francis X. Gumerlock (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2010), 7– 63; also “Gottschalk Homepage,” accessed 8.09.2017, http://gottschalk.inrebus.com/intro.html; also Muza łacińska. Antologia poezji wczesnochrześcijańskiej i średniowiecznej, ed. Marek Staro- wieyski (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 2007). 2 Hincmar of Rheims (806–882), from 845 Archbishop of Reims, was the main opponent of Gottschalk in the dispute about predestination and in the controversy about trina deitas. His criti- cisms led to the condemnation of Gottschalk’s teachings and his imprisonment. Hincmar was the author of several works directed against Gottschalk, including: De una et non trina deitate (PL 125, 473–618), De praedestinatione Dei et libero arbitrio (PL 125, 65–474), Epistola ad reclusos et simplices suae dioceseos. See Gottschalk & A Medieval Predestination Controversy, 169. GOTTSCHALK OF ORBAIS’ TEACHINGS ON PREDESTINATION 55 main areas of controversy are the Eucharist, the trinitarian problem—trina deitas—and predestination. 1. EUCHARIST The reason was the vagueness of Augustine’s position regarding the actual presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.3 Nonethe- less, the direct impulse to the dispute was given in 843 by Charles the Bald’s asking the Corbie monks whether the Eucharistic conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus is done in mysterio, in a symbolic form or in veritate, in reality. Two monks from the Corbie monastery parti- cipated in the discussion: Ratramnus of Corbie and Paschasius Radbertus. Their answer to both questions (that is, for the latter and the former question) was affirmative, but they differed in their way of explaining the phenomenon. Paschasius gave an explanation in the spirit of material re- alism, i.e., the true material body and blood of Jesus, which he laid down in his letter De corpore et sanguine Domini. Ratramnus, in turn, gave a solu- tion to the nature of the sacrament in a more symbolic and spiritual sense “as a saving food for the soul. To be able to perform such a role, it must be free from all accidents involving space and time, as well as from the proper mat- ter of destruction.”4 This controversy will find its way into the eleventh cen- tury, for example in the dispute of the dialectics with the anti-dialectics (Berengarius of Tour, Lanfranc and others) and will make a career in the Reformation era. 2. TRINA DEITAS In a way, the discussion of the dogma of the Holy Trinity is a continua- tion of the controversy between Spanish bishops Elipantus of Toledo and Felix of Urgel, the advocates of the Adoptionism,5 in the 8th and 9th cen- 3 Jaroslav PELIKAN, The Growth of Medieval Theology (600–1300), vol. 3 (Chicago and Lon- don: The University of Chicago, 1978), 74. 4 Giulio D’ONOFRIO, Historia teologii. Epoka średniowiecza, vol. 2, trans. Wiesław Szymona (Kraków: Wydawnictwo “M,” 2005), 91. 5 Spanish Adoptionism, or hispanicus error, dates back to the eighth century and was the source of a lively theological discussion in the West in those days. Its main protagonists were the arch- bishop of Toledo Elipanyus and bishop Felix of Urgel. Out of the Catholic doctrine of the two natures in Christ, Elipantus of Toledo drew a conclusion discordant with the orthodoxy, that the begotten Son of Mary is not a born Son of God, but a Son of God by adoption through grace. Fur- 56 ANDRZEJ P. STEFAŃCZYK turies, where the refinements of the Christological disputes of antiquity, such as Monophysitism and Nestorianism, could be found. In the new episode of the Trinitarian dispute, Gottschalk of Orbais, supported by Ratramnus of Cor- bie, took on the protagonist’s role. The subject of controversy was whether it was correct to speak of a “trine deity”—trina deitas. Gottschalk’s intention was to find a formula that would not necessarily result in the conclusion that “humanity was assumed not only by the Son, but at the same time by the Father and the Holy Spirit, since it was evidently the divinity that assumed the humanity.”6 Nevertheless, such an approach, i.e. trina deitas, unintentionally had the consequence of concluding that every person of the Trinity had its own divinity and was its own deity, which came dangerously close to tri- theism, and was eagerly picked up by Gottschalk’s adversaries, like Hincmar of Reims, who was instrumental in condemning the doctrine at the synod of Soissons in 853. The synod’s ruling states the inadequacy of ascribing any plural modifiers or any multiplication to the noun deitas combining any multiplication statements because deitas means one divine substance.7 3. PREDESTINATION The dispute over predestination in the ninth century is a long echo of the teachings of St. Augustine from the discussion with Pelagianism in his late treatises8 and a returning reflection of the vagueness of the Church’s position worked out at the synod of Orange in 529,9 where the defended Augustine’s ther consequences of this reasoning led Elipantus to declare that Christ is not the only son of God, but only the firstborn among many adopted. Felix, in turn, believed that Christ is only God by name, hence his formula deus nuncupativus.
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